Tuesday, October 8, 2013

ABP 2013: EFL Title Slips Away From Indonesia Again, NUS Keeps Trophy

Just like last year, three Indonesian teams reached the final of the English-as-Foreign-Language category of the 2013 Asian British Parliamentary debate tournament and had to beat the only non-Indonesian squad in the room. Unfortunately for Indonesia, history repeated itself -- the odd team won. In 2012, it was Waseda University from Japan. This year Sichuan University from host country China denied the Indonesians - Binus International A (Jaran Walia & Melisa Irene), Binus International B (Andrianto Khiputra & Wilson Salim) and Universitas Indonesia B (Anastasia Sijabat & Magreta Kailla Adenta).

There was some consolation this time, though. Jaran Walia, who has had an amazing debating year, grabbed the best EFL speaker award. Schoolmates Melisa Irene and Wilson Salim also got into the top 10 EFL speaker list.

In the open category, history also repeated itself. National University of Singapore debaters Kelvin Chong and Xiao Hongyu reclaimed the title that they won last year. In the final, #3 NUS A defeated #1 Universiti Teknologi Mara A (Maizura Mokhsein & Shafiq Bazari), #2 Nanyang Technological University A (Vihasini Gopakumar & Lu Huiyi) and #9 International Islamic University A (Syed Saddiq & Mubarrat Wassey) in a debate with the motion "This House Believes That Military Conscription Should Regarded as a War Crime". For the fourth consecutive time, UT Mara's Mai Mokhsein fell in the grandfinal. Her partner Shafiq Bazari bagged the overall best speaker prize.